Mich. Students Win More Time To Study Special Ed. Plan

When confronted this March with a 146-page, jargon-packed document
describing how Michigan plans to overhaul its special education
services, many educators, parents, and advocates for students with
disabilities felt overwhelmed. So, too, did some of the students.

"I know some rules about my school life might be changed," said Daniel
J. Plotzke, 23, a high school student with Down syndrome, in written
testimony submitted as part of a recent lawsuit against the state. "I
should be allowed to say how I feel about changing the rules. I can
understand things if you give me enough time and support."

Today, thanks to a ruling in that lawsuit, Mr. Plotzke and others
are getting more time.

Initially, the public was given 45 days to comb through the
regulatory fine print of the special education document and submit
comments to the Michigan Department of Education on the proposed
changes, which were released on March 2. Parents and other advocates
subsequently protested at the state Capitol and used public hearings to
plead for more time, but to no avail.

So they turned to the courts, a familiar arena for special education
battles in Michigan. Less familiar was the legal strategy used by their
lawyer, Calvin A. Luker. Mr. Luker did not build the case against the
department of education on the grounds that the parents who had sought
his help needed more time to review the proposed regulatory change, but
rather that their children did.

"If we couldn't comprehend the changes in that time, what about
students with cognitive disabilities?," said Mr. Luker, a lawyer from
Royal Oak, Mich. "Now we'll all have a chance to go through the rules
carefully."

The tactic paid off, when an Ingham County Circuit Court judge
agreed on April 27 to extend the period for public review and comment
until Sept. 30. The public-comment period on the plan originally had
been set to expire on April 16, although the department of education
had agreed to extend it by one month because of the public outcry.

In the view of Michael Will-iamson, Michigan's deputy superintendent
of education services, the process of changing the state's special
education regulations has hardly been on a fast track. It began eight
years ago, he said, when the state put together a task force,
consisting of special education advocates, students, and officials, to
recommend changes.

Still, he said, "I hope the prolonged conversation will help all of
us think that through more carefully."

"I respect the process of public comment," Mr. Williamson added. "I
am heartened by the passion that parents and advocates demonstrated. I
want what's best for students."

Classifications Would Shift

As they now stand, Michigan's proposed rules would change the way
the state classifies students' disabilities by consolidating the
current categories of disabilities. For example, the three categories
of "severely," "trainable," and "educable" mentally impaired would all
fall under a single, "cognitive impairment" category.

Some school administrators have said the move, which follows a
national trend away from narrow, specific disability classifications
toward systems that focus on students' needs for services, would allow
them welcome flexibility. But some parents fear that, without a
specific classification, some of the related medical services the
children receive might be in jeopardy.

Mr. Williamson argued that the changes would improve services for
students.

"We're a diverse state," he said. "It would get us from thinking
about children by classification and by group toward a system that
focuses on individual students and their needs."

The changes would also remove certain requirements for special
education services provided by local districts, such as those governing
class size and student-teacher ratios. In that way, the proposed
changes would give local school districts more freedom and power in the
special education arena, state officials say. Some critics, though,
fear the changes could limit eligibility for services.

The state has had its existing special education rules in place
since before the passage in 1975 of the landmark federal law now known
as the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. Today, Michigan has
been instructed by the U.S. Department of Education to bring its system
into closer alignment with the federal law, although a deadline for
doing so has not been set.

Mr. Williamson said a major goal of the proposed changes is to bring
the state more in line with the IDEA's emphasis on meeting individual
students' needs, rather than having the educational services they
receive determined primarily by their particular disability
classifications.

State education department officials had hoped to have the process
wrapped up before Thomas D. Watkins Jr. took over as superintendent of
public instruction on April 30, Mr. Williamson said.

The Case in Context

Criticism of the proposed rule changes have come not only from
parents and advocates, but also from local school officials. Of the
4,000 comments received as of last week, many came from districts with
concerns on issues such as whether granting local officials more
discretion would lead to inconsistencies in the delivery of special
education services statewide.

Some critics believe the state's plan should be viewed in the
context of a series of class actions dating to 1979, in which Michigan
has been ordered to pay some $1 billion to school districts to
compensate them for the state's failure to adequately pay for its
mandates on special education.

Local districts filed the latest such class action in November, and
its outcome is still pending. Some critics contend that the proposed
rules constitute the state's attempt to reduce its liability by
shifting primary responsibility for special education to local
districts. ("Mich. Sued 3rd
Time Over Spec. Ed. Funds," Dec. 6, 2000.)

Mr. Williamson, however, denied that the changes were proposed in
response to the districts' lawsuit, commonly known as the "Durant III"
case. A series of special education funding lawsuits in Michigan have
come to be referred to as the "Durant cases" after Donald Durant, who
was president of the Fitzgerald, Mich., school board at the time the
first case was filed.

"That's purely coincidental with the timing of the Durant case," Mr.
Williamson said.

Setting Precedent?

As debate over the regulations continues, Mr. Luker said he hopes
the court decision in his clients' favor will lead to greater
accommodations for those with disabilities in the policymaking
process.

In the special education lawsuit, Mr. Luker argued that the students
needed more time than the standard public- comment process allows,
especially those students with cognitive or visual impairments that
make it difficult to read and understand such a document. And he
pointed out that the department had not offered special accommodations
for such students, including making the document available in
Braille.

Although the lawsuit named the 23-year-old Mr. Plotzke and several
other students as plaintiffs, it is a class action representing the
220,000 Michigan students who receive special education services. In
Michigan, students are eligible for such services until their 26th
birthdays.

Mr. Luker said several advocacy groups, along with the state
education department's special education office, will conduct focus
groups in which the proposed changes will be explained to students with
disabilities. The officials will help link the students' comments to
specific rules, and the comments will be formed into formal responses
for the record.

"If, after all of this, not one student with a disability makes a
public comment, I will be humiliated," Mr. Luker said. "Then I will
have been just another person who exploited the disabled."

The superintendent of schools issued a
Memorandum April 17 to extend the deadline for comment on changes
to the special education policy to May 16. In a news
release about the extention, the superintendent is quoted as saying
that the original deadline was adequate. (Requires Adobe's Acrobat
Reader.)

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